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Musings Project Updates

As Above So Below

From Ivor Gott

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“Hey Ivor, it’d be pretty neat if you could write a blog to tell us about your project for nithraid” announced Katie Anderson excitedly at the last Young Stove meeting. The first thing that went through my mind upon hearing these words was “CRIKEY!! How on earth am I ever going to explain this to the general public?” . . . After much careful consideration, i have come to the conclusion that the best approach would be to just tell the truth.

So here goes. . .

It all started with a pirate ship, a great big pirate ship. A great big pirate ship made out of recycled plastic bottles. . .  So how did i get from a pirate ship to two pyramids or should i say tetrahedrons, a chrome unicorn and an art performance based loosely around the concept of enlightenment. The truth of the matter is I didnt get there on my own. The pirate ship was a snap decision made during a meeting with my stove mentor Denise Zygadlo.  i was feeling under immense pressure to make some sort of decision on the project, at this point it had been two weeks since the commission had started, and my initial idea, although perfect for the dock park site (where nithraid was originally intended to be) was just not going to work on mill green. . . “come on Ivor” My inner voice urged. . . “what are you going to do? It must be good, no better than good, It must be fabulous!” . . . so before i had even properly thought about it i found myself telling denise that i might make a pirate ship out of plastic bottles.

This idea then grew from a pirate ship into a viking long boat, inspired by a workshop held at stove that evening. However this was not to remain the case for very long. After a few meetings with my fellow creatives the Mad Jackals (Majikals) the idea of making a viking long boat was starting to seem pretty tiresome. I just couldnt get excited about it. It wasn’t a reflection of me nor was it a reflection of my wonderfully creative friends. . . Then it just came to me i said. “We need to make a pyramid and float it down the nith!!” . . . “We have to have a unicorn inside the pyramid!!” . . . the words of a mad person? Yes, probably.

At this point there was myself, sophie and michael at the studio. You could feel the collective excitement crackling between our minds. I started scribbling ideas down.  it MUST and I repeat MUST include the mer-ka-ba, rainbow smoke, flash grenades, horned elementals . . . i was really getting away with myself, credit to Sophie and Michael they were running with me, we were organic and free, if not a little overly optimistic.

The next day I met with my little brother. We were sat in the queensberry, and i was expressing anxiety over the size of the project as it stood. Conor very often being the voice of reason, is somebody who i consult when mashing around creative ideas. He is himself a creative, but where I go off on tangents and allow my concepts to grow bigger than my mind can handle, he has a real skill for reducing it down and keeping it real. i can always trust him to tell me the truth, and to be realistic. . . “one question?” he pondered with his eyebrow raised ” How are you going to do this in 2 weeks?” . . .

I knew he was right. The idea had to change again, and it had to change fast. More of the jackals were arriving at this point. ideas were being thrown around, the ideas were coming thick and fast –

“time capsule” . . . ” Did you say time capsule. . .

Thats perfect. the mer-ka-ba. . . As above so below. . . We’ll make a time capsule and we’ll make it in the shape of an inverse tetrahedron. . . of course we’re going to need a non-inverted tetrahedron too. . . ahhhh its perfect. . . there will be two tetrahedrons. . . the unicorn thats staying, the rainbow smoke has to stay too. “

In order to maintain some mystery about the performance and workshop I’m going to stop there, but in a nutshell thats how an idea that first birthed itself into consciousness as a plastic bottle pirate ship evolved into an exciting interactive art performance based loosely around the theme of enlightenment. We look forward to seeing you all on sunday, when all will be revealed. . . One thing i’d like to say before I get back to putting the finishing  touches on everything is that this commission although applied for as a solo project has been a collaborative effort, I often find collaboration so much more exciting than working alone, and have the most fabulous team of creative individuals in my life. We are the Mad Jackals because, they think we’re mad, but we know that we are majickal.

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Musings Project Updates

New Distractions

We asked ourselves a question: “Can a sign above a High Street building ever do anything other than promote and brand; can it ask questions, be part of a conversation with other signs… can our High Street ever be a space that prioritises people as well as sales?”

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Whose downturn is this?

As a species we show ourselves to be resilient and forever adaptable, but what true opportunities are there between the moss and the ‘for sale’ signs? How do we re-make the spaces between the High Streets we remember and what is left when our High Street no longer meets the bottom line of the multinationals?

Our town centres have grown out of a need to gather, connect, meet, barter and exchange. Dumfries owes its place to the river, the cattle marts and the passage of people. But from our largely rural context, Dumfries has also been the gathering point, the melting pot of communities meeting and exchanging, not just economically but socially, our connection out into the world.

‘A marketplace (rather than ‘market’) is a sociable space in which buying and selling take place surrounded by other activities, a place you come to see friends, to hear stories, to argue about ideas. Crucially, unlike a Starbucks or a department store, it is a space where your welcome is not determined purely by your abilities to spend money.’*

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What is valuable on our High Streets?

Dumfries stands at a point questioning its identity, and it’s place within the world. Primark may not have arrived, but there is an air of anticipation and change whispering quietly amongst a growing number of the town’s communities. Now is the time to search for the new role we can play in creating the future of Dumfries, to reach out for a possible Dumfries.

Dumfries is not dead, only sleeping. Hidden Dumfries is in plain sight, behind the sagging bus stances and single occupancy street furniture.

Now is the time to act.

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How do we judge what a downturn is anyways?

This action does not require grand master planners, or large scale redevelopment, but a little collective energy and small positive acts. Testing and experimentation, problem solving and lightweight interventions can lead the way to a more active high street, looking forward to a more valuable town centre. Small actions can highlight, question, explore and initiate discussion, growing from an inquisitive response to our everyday.

This is a call for new distractions.

Can we create a new visual language for our high streets?

*Dougald Hine, Space Makers. Quoted in how to save our town centres, by Julian Dobson.

Supported by:
cultwayfunderlogossmall

Categories
Musings

Ode to a Moody Cow

From Moxie de Paulitte

Nith Raid (65)

She can be a moody cow
This town of ours.
Swinging between
Udderly lovely and
Udderly unbearable
Just as her unmarked udders
Swing
Back and forth
Almost clanking
Like a long forgotten souvenir Swiss bell.
Heave with untapped potential.
Nostalgic for a time long gone,
That was never really there,
endless sunny days
And sweet pasture.
Of not having to lock front doors
And Tender Loving Care,
Where the milk of human kindness flowed abundant
And you knew the names of all your neighbours.

Moody she may be
But her mind is open
As she stands by the river
sniffing the air
And smiling at the head scent of a
New
Calf
On the
Block.

Intoxicated
She welcomes the change,
This moody cow.
happy that her milk,
again,
can nourish.
Her wisdom valued
Just filtered different.
No longer weighted down
By burdens of her own making.

The sun returns
Igniting hope
Flooding dark,
forgotten,
moody corners.
And she can flourish in its glow.
this Moody Cow
This town of ours.

A tide turned.
Goodbyes waved.
Missions accomplished.
Rebooted.
Updated.

Nithraid was concieved as a public artwork to activate the riverside in Dumfries in the summer of 2013, and bring new focus and people down to celebrate the Nith. Now in it’s third year Dumfries is preparing to welcome sailors up river to the heart of the town when Nithraid 2015 will sail into town on Sunday, 2nd of August. Nithraid is free and open to all to attend, and last year saw crowds of 4,000 lining the banks to watch the winning boats cross the finish line. Find out more about this years Nithraid here

The discussion is open, and we invite contributions to our artistic conversations – whether you have been involved in Nithraid in previous years, are interested in the changing face of public art and when a sailing race is also an artwork, please get in touch via the comments box below or to send your contribution please email [email protected]

Image: Nithraid 2013. Tom Telfer.

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News Project Updates

Not To Be Sold Separately

From Emily Cooper

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Months of planning, budgeting and most importantly, creating; and the Young Stove were finally ready to burst on to the art scene of Dumfries and Galloway with our debut exhibition. “Not to Be Sold Separately”, our maiden voyage into exhibiting as a collective, embarked on the 3rd of July and was met with a storm of excitement and positive comments.

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As a group of eight young artists, all with contrasting styles and creative visions, coming together to form a cohesive show, seemed a daunting task, however rather than it becoming an obstacle it became one of our greatest assets and resulted in a vibrant, diverse collection of work that reflects us as a group of people.

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Installation day had its own challenges as we had only a matter of hours to transform a beautiful, yet unconventional space with complex lighting and to install all of our work before opening the same night. The learning curve was a steep one as our experience level ranged from exhibition veterans, to those of us (myself included) who had never exhibited publicly, but, remarkably we pulled it off without a hitch! Having complete creative control and being responsible for hanging our own work was an invaluable experience when it comes to exhibiting in the future.

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“Not to Be Sold Separately closes on the 26th of July and travels to Dumfries to be reimagined and reopened at the start of August. With a new space, new pieces and with even more artists added to the line-up, it’s gives us an exciting opportunity to redevelop and build on the success of the exhibitions’ first leg. Mill on the Fleet has been a fantastic opening venue. Transplanting a thoroughly modern, edgy, collection of work into such a historical and characterful building has resulted in a glorious, colourful, discordance, symbolic of the Young Stove.

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Categories
Musings

The Udder Hand. The Quantum Field

Anonymous

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udder hand

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Nithraid was concieved as a public artwork to activate the riverside in Dumfries in the summer of 2013, and bring new focus and people down to celebrate the Nith. Now in it’s third year Dumfries is preparing to welcome sailors up river to the heart of the town when Nithraid 2015 will sail into town on Sunday, 2nd of August. Nithraid is free and open to all to attend, and last year saw crowds of 4,000 lining the banks to watch the winning boats cross the finish line. Find out more about this years Nithraid here

The discussion is open, and we invite contributions to our artistic conversations – whether you have been involved in Nithraid in previous years, are interested in the changing face of public art and when a sailing race is also an artwork, please get in touch via the comments box below or to send your contribution please email [email protected]

Categories
Musings

Cooland

From Matt Baker

Foggy Beltie Cap

When the earths crust thickened and cooled deeply, it cracked and four avenues dropped neatly in lines: four invitations for four rivers – Annan, Nith, Dee and Cree. Water washing soil over the rock posted another invite – for a beast to graze the land, to break it with footprints for germinating seeds and to re-fertilise it with their dung.

We know the coos, slabbed together on a cold, damp morning their breath hanging together like the breath of the earth, or contented and dispersed across a summer field chewing in deep rhythm. We know them as part of the oneness of our place.

Our land is pasture land, home to a kinship between humankind and cookind that has spawned a million inventions with milk, meat and leather.

Our coos have been our wealth, their mobility precious in times that you couldn’t hide a field of barley from ancient raiders. Always moving from winter to summer pastures and to market over Nith, Annan, Dee and Cree.

Humans moved too, in tough times we spread far across the seas and as migrants found their feet they called for their coos to follow. Great Uncle Jimmy raised shorthorn cattle in Wigtownshire to send on boats to the Argentine. The canny exiles sent us meat home in cans. Corned beef is still the favourite food of one of Jimmy’s daughters and the other drank unpasteurised milk straight from the farm all her days.

We are Nithraid and this land is where we bide, so we race the tide up our river to release the salty spirit of Coo.

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Nithraid was concieved as a public artwork to activate the riverside in Dumfries in the summer of 2013, and bring new focus and people down to celebrate the Nith. Now in it’s third year Dumfries is preparing to welcome sailors up river to the heart of the town when Nithraid 2015 will sail into town on Sunday, 2nd of August. Nithraid is free and open to all to attend, and last year saw crowds of 4,000 lining the banks to watch the winning boats cross the finish line. Find out more about this years Nithraid here

The discussion is open, and we invite contributions to our artistic conversations – whether you have been involved in Nithraid in previous years, are interested in the changing face of public art and when a sailing race is also an artwork, please get in touch via the comments box below or to send your contribution please email [email protected]

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